Sunday, October 21, 2007

In-Progress At Martinsville: RaceDay On SPEED

This Sunday morning at 9:30AM Eastern Time SPEED presents NASCAR RaceDay from Martinsville, VA. This program is airing early because of the live Formula-1 race that SPEED is carrying at 11:30AM.

RaceDay is hosted by John Roberts, and features Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace as analysts. Hermie Sadler is used to offer the track description and the viewer ride-a-long in SPEED-1, the network's camera car. Ricki Rachtman appears on the program to participate in the weekly race winner picks.

News and features on the program are offered by Wendy Venturini. There are only several weeks left in the 2007 NASCAR season, and Venturini's name is all over the place when it comes to current and anticipated openings in "NASCAR TV land." She has worked very hard on this program, and it will be interesting to see what additional role she plays, or where she lands for next year despite her current TV contract.

This page will host your comments about this early edition of RaceDay on SPEED. To add your comment, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the instructions. Please read the rules for posting on the right side of the main page, and thanks for taking the time to visit The Daly Planet.

I'm watching, too. Jimmy and Kenny are drinking coffee, too, from these big SPEED mugs. Wendy didn't have a SPEED mug, so she got her own cup and wrote SPEED on it in black magic marker. These guys rock, they're so silly!

John Roberts said Wendy's The Real Deal feature is with Doug Yates. JD Gibbs will be interviewed, coming up. They are showing the Behind the Wheel type race highlights from Lowe's right now.

That quote might work fine out of context. If you are a RaceDay viewer, you understand what I said in my column.

There is no doubt RaceDay could be on the air at 7AM if need be. My point, and my only point, was that SPEED should have opted for another pathway of distribution.

It not that they can't do it, its just that I felt they should do it at the normal time. Remember, this show has worked hard since February each and every race to provide one type of product. To simply decide to "move it" is going to have repercussions. That's TV.

My understanding is that RaceDay lost their primary satellite feed into Los Angeles and the network put up a slide (video) and immediately defaulted to the back-up audio path which is usually a phone line.

This was done very quicky and efficiently. When the satellite feed was restored, the Master Control in LA switched back right away. Good job dealing with a technical issue.

Great Raceday show today. It kept my interest even though it was two hours early. The debate between JR, Kenny, and Jimmy about Doug Yates Racing requiring all of the Robert Yates employees to reapply was very interesting to listen to.

I don't think SPEED will face many, or any, repercussions for moving Raceday. It's the Formula 1 championship airing in its place, not some random race. It's not like they're airing something unimportant like four episodes of PINKS in its place. The NASCAR message boards I visit had information posted about the time change for the past couple of days and it was on my onscreen tv guide.

JR promoted the Formula 1 race towards the end and showed the points standings so some people will probably stay tuned.

I didn't watch Nascar RaceDay ... 6:30am is NOT good for those of us on the West Coast ...

I'll also be skipping Nascar Victory Lane ... What are they gonna talk about today that they haven't already said in over 1/3 of the shows this season?? Absolutely nothing ... Oh waitaminute ... They'll bring up the plane crash ...